With friendly service and a welcoming, family atmosphere, Fahrenheit Café has become an Ocean Springs favorite for popular street food from around the globe, smoothies, boba teas and delectable desserts.
Ly Pham and her husband, AJ Hughes, established Fahrenheit Café in 2016. After making a name for themselves at their original strip mall site on Route 90, they decided to commission their own building off of Washington Avenue. Ly’s hair salon, Beauty Attractions, is next door to the cafe.
“This place is just happy,” Ly says. “I wanted to create a happy environment, that when you come in, it would make you feel good, relax and chill out.”
With the grand opening of both businesses, celebrated this past October, the couple has created the perfect place to unwind. Upon entering, you’ll notice a refrigerated display case filled with large, fresh-baked slices of delicious cheesecake and cake pops. To the right, you will find the rolled ice cream preparation area, where milk, cream and a “secret ingredient” are poured onto extremely cold metal plates to freeze, then rolled thin into customized dessert creations. In the corner is a nook with a large couch and table to play games like chess, checkers, Connect Four and giant Jenga — or just relax while you surf the net using free Wi-Fi.
“It makes us really feel good when we see all the families hanging out and interacting with one another,” AJ says. “It is where they can come to enjoy some quality time and get great dining options.”
Besides being a unique place to satisfy the sweet tooth, Fahrenheit Café is also a great place for those wanting to eat healthy. Primarily an ice cream shop when it first opened, the business has since branched out to feature ramen and Hawaiian poké bowls.
Patrons build their own poké bowls, starting with a base of brown or white rice or spring salad, then picking and choosing from among a large menu of fresh protein, toppings and sauces. Depending on which size bowl you choose, you get one to three proteins from a list that includes octopus, shrimp, tuna, beef or chicken teriyaki, salmon, tofu and ginger pork. Next, you select unlimited toppings from over two dozen options of fresh vegetables, which are then topped with sauces of your choosing. Premium add-ons like crab, seaweed, squid salad, tobiko, fried egg and avocado also are available.
On my visit, I had the sushi-grade tuna and octopus, edamame, avocado, seaweed salad, broccoli, corn, carrots and sesame seeds. While I chose a medium size, the bowl was overflowing with fresh ingredients, I had plenty to take home for lunch the next day.
Wanting to also try one of the three new ramen bowls Fahrenheit Café now offers, I had the takayama bowl, which consists of hot chicken broth filled with crispy baked chicken, green onions, shiitake mushrooms, corn, bamboo shoots, baby bok choy, bean sprouts, nori, garlic oil, lime and a soft-boiled egg. All the ingredients blended together to make an enchanting dish that was the perfect choice for a cold day.
Fahrenheit Café was the first to offer rolled ice cream on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and I wasn’t about to leave without trying some. The possibilities are virtually endless, as you can build your own creation by choosing from among a hundred different flavors and toppings.
“All our ice cream is custom-made,” Ly says, “It’s made to order, so nothing sits in the freezer. There is no freezer burn. We make our own mix. Everything is homemade, and everything’s fresh.”
Having decided to try the most popular option, I watched as the special ice cream mixture was poured onto a metal plate that chills down to -12 degrees. As it quickly began to freeze, it was spread into a thin layer over the cold surface; then, Fruity Pebbles cereal was added. After a few seconds, the ice cream was scrapped off the cold surface, then rolled into pretty little scrolls that were put in a cup, drizzled with condensed milk and topped with whipped cream and more of the colorful cereal. It was absolutely delicious.
With the cheesecake display staring at me during my visit, I couldn’t leave without taking a couple of the large slices to go. Ly first decided to master the art of making cheesecake after a vacation to New York, when she and the family visited the House of Cheesecakes. Finding theirs very “commercial” tasting, she was convinced she could make it better and spent a year of trial and error perfecting her rich, made-from-scratch recipe. The result is some of the best cheesecake I have ever tasted.
Fahrenheit Café is open seven days a week from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekdays and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A drive thru is available for to-go orders, and you also can have your food delivered by Grubhub or Doordash. Full cheesecakes in 17 different varieties can be made to order with two days’ notice for gift giving or your next celebration.
IF YOU GO
Fahrenheit Café
13201 Green Acres Drive, Ocean Springs
www. fahrenheitcafeosms.com
www.facebook.com/FahrenheitCafeLLC
(228) 334-5351